WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS
2021 ACSSW National
School Social Work Institute
FEBRUARY 1, 2021
1A1 Healing Centered Expressive Practices for Children and Families Impacted by Trauma
Estela Andujo, PhD, LCSW; Michal Sela-Amit, PhD
Trauma may have detrimental consequences in the lives of children, youth, and families. It has both short and long-term impacts on physical as well as mental health. It often interferes not only with emotional and cognitive processing and learning, but also with the ability to fully thrive and enjoy wellness. Trauma care is the first necessary step to ensure the restoration of health, but trauma care alone is not enough to fully achieve well-being. Clients are more than their traumas, and thriving is more than being trauma-free. This workshop will demonstrate the use of integrative methods that social workers in schools can use to assist in sensory integration and trauma recovery as well as move beyond it toward a full articulation of their strengths.
1A2 Building a School Wide SEL Program to Support Students with Trauma
Marina Badillo, LCSW, DSW Candidate
This presentation focuses on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Program implementation for school social workers (primary, middle, and high school) using a case example of an urban alternative charter high school. Research on trauma and SEL will be reviewed to understand how SEL programming can support students who are at risk. Program implementation theory to develop high quality SEL programing for schools will be examined. Lastly, organization structure, stakeholders, advocacy, data gathering, and sustainability will be discussed. Handouts will be provided.
1A3 Changing the Narrative: From Criminals to Scholars
Amandla Daniels, MSW, SSW; Bekki Crowley, MEd
This workshop will provide an overview of the cultural shift that occurred at the Vel R. Phillips School, located within Milwaukee County's Juvenile Justice Facility, resulting in a reduction of behavioral issues, improvement in the educational setting, and retention of teaching staff through the use of trauma-sensitive practices. Learn about the techniques and tools that were implemented to achieve 23% fewer behavioral incidents and an increased retention of teaching staff from 70% to 87%.
1A4 Practical Strategies for Regulating Students’ Brains
Joshua MacNeill, MEd; Kathy Van Horn, Licensed Psychologist, MEd
Knowing your students are impacted by trauma is only step one. It is more important to know what to do. This session will cover interventions such as brain breaks, fidgets, student curriculum, and service dogs. We will share how we transformed four schools to meet the needs of struggling students. Whether you are an academic, clinical, or administrative staff, you will leave with tangible interventions you can implement immediately.
Additionally, we will provide basic information about each brain region along with different interventions that work specifically for that region. By choosing appropriate interventions, targeted at the brain region your students are operating from, you will observe many more short-term successes, and begin paving the way for long-term healing.
1A5 Black and Brown Students in Predominantly White Institutions, PWI
Kimberly Finney, PsyD, ABPP, ABMP; Terence Dwight Fitzgerald, PhD, EdM, MSW
This is a panel discussion using a Historical White Framework to discuss race: the reality of diversity for Black and Brown Students in Predominantly White Institutions. We will be coupling powerful personal narratives with incisive observations and revealing the myriad complexities and challenges related to diversity. A Q&A format is encouraged.
1B1 Creativity for Community: Using a Trauma-Informed Model of Arts to Enhance Your Social Work Practice
Mandy Goodwin, MSW, LCSW
Arts are a powerful tool in promoting community and school culture. Arts enhance lessons in individual and small groups, while building rapport and cohesion. In this presentation, participants will be familiarized with art projects for different populations and how to utilize them within the school setting. Participants will learn what it means to follow a trauma-informed model in application and will receive a large packet of detailed projects, supplies, and instructions. Participants will take part in their own collaborative arts project.
1B2 The Self-Care Paradox: Taking Care of Yourself Is the First Step in Taking Care of Others
Erica Warshawer, MSW, LCSW
Has the Pandemic Life spread you too thin? Are you feeling unsuccessful and worn out across all of your personal and professional roles? Has your self-care been deprioritized due to the demands of work and life making self-care seem like an impossible task right now? In this session, we will collectively pause to mindfully reground ourselves and reconnect with who we are at our core and why we do the work we do. Using trauma-informed and equity lenses, we will assess the impact of the past year on our brain function, our day to day lives, our narratives about self-care and draft a personalized self-care road map for supporting your quality of life in this "new world."
1B3 Last on the List? Deepening Your Awareness and Enhancing Your Wellness Using Self-Coaching Strategies
Amy Nelson, MSSW, CAPSW
As you know, school social workers are rarely drawn to wellness breakouts (the past me included!). We take care of others and often forget about ourselves. Through exploring our values and thoughts, including those that sabotage our wellness, participants will learn strategies to use on their own self-care journey. Fully honoring our values and beliefs brings fulfillment and gives us energy. Enter our inner saboteur, with thoughts that deliberately damage and destroy our confidence, hope, and resilience. Through fully exploring this saboteur, participants shine a light on the dissonant voices within and begin to develop self-coaching strategies that honor their values and improve their wellness.
1B4 Professional Resilience for Social Workers—What, How, and Why
Alejandra Acuña, PhD, LCSW, PPSC
Although burnout, depression, PTSD, and secondary traumatic stress rates are elevated among social workers, social workers also report resilience, vicarious resilience, vicarious post-traumatic growth, and high compassion satisfaction. Findings from a recent survey of social work field instructors (N=110) will be presented as well as theoretical (transactional analysis) and empirically supported strategies for practitioners and organizations.
Monday Lunch Panel - Barriers to and Facilitators for Equity in the Time of COVID
Tamir D. Harper, BA in process; Stuart Warshawer, MEd, BA
Panelists will share their perspectives on barriers and facilitators to equitable education that students and families are facing during COVID. In addition to their observations about student experiences, panelists will offer insight into their own practices or other approaches to meeting some of the challenges associated with ensuring equity during COVID-19.
1C1 Lawndale Elementary School District’s Trauma-Informed Approach to Promote a Collaborative Culture for Student Mental Health
Maria Ruelas, EdD, MSW, PPSC; Martika Tucker, ACSW, PPSC; Evelyn Garcia, LCSW, PPSC
This presentation will address the use of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to focus on trauma-informed practices in school settings. Participants will develop the skills to shift perspectives through professional development for all staff (i.e., certificated and classified staff). In addition, participants will learn how to realize the prevalence of trauma and recognize the impact trauma has on developmental behavior through an interactive presentation. Participants will also learn strategies to respond to behaviors while utilizing vignettes to apply a trauma-informed lens. After this presentation, participants will learn effective strategies to restore relationships with students.
1C2 Supporting Military Students Before, During and After Deployment
Brandi L. Conrad, DSW, LCSW-BACS; Jahanna Bailey, DSW, LCSW-BACS
The academic and mental health needs of military students can be overlooked. Schools can help military students thrive by providing specialized support, especially during a time of transition or deployment. This workshop will introduce participants to the basic information needed to assist military students before, during, and after deployment. Participants will learn about interventions and strategies to best support the academic and social-emotional needs of military students.
1C3 Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Review of an on-line Learning Curriculum for Schools
Steve Hydon, EdD, MSW
This presentation will explore concepts of secondary traumatic stress (STS) through the use of an on-line five module curriculum that helps users identify risk factors for STS, impact of STS and self-care techniques designed to mitigate STS symptoms.
1C4 Racial Injustice in Schools: Underscoring Social Work’s Obligation to Promote Anti-racist Practice
Jandel Crutchfield. PhD. LCSW
Children of color (COC) continue to have a range of disparate educational experiences that implicate structural and institutional racism as powerful, detrimental forces in American P-12 schools. As members of a profession dedicated to empowerment and to the dismantling of oppression, social workers are called to respond to these forces. Social workers work in and with schools in diverse roles (e.g., practitioners, community partners, organizational leaders, contracted providers), and are ethically obligated to challenge injustice. As such, we begin by acknowledging social work’s complex relationship with race. This presentation considers the state of affairs for COC in schools, social work’s professional and ethical obligations, and extant opportunities for social workers to learn to address structural racism. To thoroughly consider race in schools and in the institutions that prepare social workers to work in schools, a conceptual framework is employed that is informed by theory centered on race—critical race theory and racial formation theory.
In this conceptually driven review presentation, empirical evidence about race and P-12 schooling is reviewed in addition to guidelines and standards for practitioners that frame social workers’ obligations to address issues of racial inequity and injustice, and the state of professional learning opportunities about race for social workers and other human service professionals.
FEBRUARY 2, 2021
2A1 Social Support: Increasing Resiliency Among Individuals Who Have Experienced Trauma
Timmesha Butler, LCSW
Social support is a key factor in building rapport in a working relationship. It creates an environment of safety and trust. In addition, social support has been associated with increasing resiliency among individuals who have experienced some form of adverse life events (Zoellner, 2015). Different forms of social support act as a catalyst in developing the motivation to adopt healthy and reduce risky behaviors.
Specifically, for students with disabilities, social support has been shown to increase self-esteem and optimism. Students who perceive their educational environments as safe and supportive are more willing to be receptive of resources. Social support is a unique concept in that it varies based on individual need. However, the University of Pennsylvania (2019) describes four types of social support as 1. Emotional, 2. Instrumental, 3. Informational, and 4. Appraisal.
The purpose of this presentation is to present social support as a reliable resource in trauma-informed care. This presentation will use the four types of social support as a foundation for identifying micro-level interventions and methods to effectively address issues related to trauma in the school environment. Additionally, the presentation will expand on social support related practices that specifically target the trauma experienced by students with learning and or behavior/emotional disabilities.
2A2 Complex Trauma in the Classroom and Therapeutic Strategies to Address Learning
Ashley Ice, LCSW
Exposure to complex trauma has profound effects on youth brain development. Trauma that effects development shows up in the classroom and can impact an individual's ability to learn, especially if their ability to regulate is underdeveloped. We discuss complex trauma and its impact, the implications of working with trauma populations, and effective therapeutic strategies to help youth heal in academic institutions.
2A3 The Synergy Between Motivational Interviewing and Trauma-Informed Practice
Maria Hu Hydon, DSW, LCSW; Umeka Franklin, MSW, PPSC
This presentation will discuss how Motivational Interviewing (MI) can be utilized to enhance systems that are trauma-informed. Participants will learn the specific strategies of MI that promotes a trauma-informed system. The presentation will also discuss the domains of trauma informed care and how MI is trauma-informed. Participants will learn the five techniques of MI that assists with engaging with clients. Interactive activities will be integrated within the presentation to ensure participants become familiar with the synergy between MI and Trauma-Informed Practice.
2A4 CSEC in Schools: Trauma-Informed Practices for Preventing and Responding to Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Schools
Holly Priebe-Sotelo, MSW, PPSC
This workshop will provide participants with the current trends, research, and the latest trauma-informed strategies for preventing and intervening with commercial sexual exploitation within the school community.
2B1 Trauma-informed Skills for Educators (TISE) - Part I
Vivien Villaverde, MS SW, LCSW, PPSC; Pamela Vona, MA, MPH
The Trauma-Informed Skills for Educators (TISE) is a professional development designed to enhance educators’ knowledge about trauma. Part 1 focuses on increasing educators’ understanding of trauma prevalence, impacts, and recognizing symptoms on students. Part 2 helps educators learn concrete skills and strategies to support students to foster trauma responsiveness throughout the school community. This training aims to increase knowledge and skills of all school staff as well as provide support services staff the tools to help engage their school to be more trauma-responsive.
2B2 Resources to Build Resilience: Strategies to Build Resilience in our Youth and Ourselves
Kelly Hubbell, MSW, LCSW
Chronic stress and trauma can have a major impact on the nervous system and the brain. In this session, participants will learn strategies to help reset the nervous system and promote well-being. Trauma informed research indicates that resiliency factors are correlated to recovery and well-being. These practical strategies are not only helpful in working with students in school but also teachers and adults in addressing compassion fatigue. Participants will learn practices that they can implement only a daily basis to reset their nervous system and connect with those around them.
2B3 Understanding the Neurosequential Model of Education and Trauma-informed Educational Techniques for the Classroom
Jennifer Lewis, PhD, LCSW; Bianca Harper, DSW, LCSW
Trauma informed practices have become the standard of care in clinical practice settings and have been integrated into the course content at most schools of social work. However, many programs have not considered how the delivery of the content impacts the students with lived experience of trauma, which is increasingly more common in schools of social work. Informed by the Neurosequential Model of Education (Perry, 2013 ) the presenters will offer a new approach to the sequencing of clinical practice courses to ensure that the most effective learning care take place.
2B4 Rethinking Trauma-Informed Practices in Schools from a Social Justice Perspective
Stacy Gherardi, PhD, MSW, LCSW
The integration of trauma-informed practices into schools represents an important opportunity to build healthy, supportive schools that are responsive to student needs. Despite their promise, frameworks for trauma-informed schools are often focused primarily on understanding the impact and pervasiveness of trauma and tend to overlook the role schools play in perpetuating trauma. These realities can lead to an understanding of trauma-informed education that is largely deficit-oriented and disengaged from family and community. This session will explore these issues and share considerations for the implementation of strengths-based, social justice centered trauma-informed practices.
Tuesday Lunch Panel - Special Education Advocacy During Covid
Paola Santana, MS, BA; Julian Goodwin, BA, MSW in process
Remote learning has proven to be an essential measure in keeping our children and families safe during this global pandemic. For many students with disabilities however, accessing needed services has become more difficult, leading to gaps in academic and socio-emotional support, disproportionately effecting this minority group. How do we as social workers, educators, and family members, adapt our practices and methods to overcome this inequity and more effectively meet the needs of these unique and incredible individuals? Join our discussion, facilitated by a special educator and a family advocate as we work together to find solutions.
2C1 Creating a Trauma-Informed Culture for Students Who Were Formerly Incarcerated
Susan Hess, MSW, LCSW-IL; Yehudah Pryce, BA, MSW in process
This workshop will introduce Trauma-Informed Interview Coaching as an innovative approach to assist students with criminal justice histories find success in applying for employment and higher education. Participants will work with trauma-informed principles as applied through an intersectional, anti-oppressive lens to engage in educational practices that promote social justice.
2C2 We Need Wellness Centers, and We Need Them Now!
Cristina Dobon Claveau, LCSW, PPS; Craig Gibbs, LCSW, PPS; Sabrina Vella, LCSW, PPS
Wellness Centers are not a new concept in schools. The implementation of the Wellness Centers in Roseville Joint High School District was a very fast process with many challenges along the way. The presenters will discuss the implementation of their comprehensive student-centered and trauma-informed Wellness Program within the guides of a Multi-Tiered System of Support framework and how the program went from idea to a district priority.
2C3 The Power of Positive Language: A Trauma Informed Approach to Build Resiliency and a Culture of Connectedness and Empowerment
Rosemary Alamo, LCSW, PPSC; Rick Ornelas, MSW
The use of positive language is a critical tool for social work practitioners. It helps build rapport and trust with clients, parents, teachers, and colleagues. Whether social work practitioners communicate verbally or in written form, the language selected will affect how the message is perceived. Social work practitioners in either a micro or macro role can utilize positive language to foster resiliency in schools, help mitigate conflict, improve communication, increase optimism in others, and can portray the social worker as credible and respectable.
2C4 Trauma-informed Skills for Educators (TISE) - Part II
Vivien Villaverde, MS SW, LCSW, PPSC; Pamela Vona, MA, MPH
See 2B1.
Workshops will be added as updates & confirmations come in.